Miami, US, Jan 7 (EFE).- An agent from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot and killed a US citizen in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
Federal officials claimed it was an act of self-defense, but Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called it a “reckless” and unnecessary action.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said there is no indication that the woman was the target of an immigration enforcement investigation. She appeared to have been sitting in a car that was blocking a street.
Videos of the incident published in US media show ICE agents approaching the woman’s car as she is blocking the street and trying to forcibly open the door, the woman tries to drive away as one of the agents is pulling the door handle, and a second agent shoots her.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, during a visit to Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”
President Donald Trump also defended ICE agents in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
“The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense,” wrote Trump, including a video from the incident.
“The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis,” Trump added.
The Minneapolis mayor, a Democrat, dismissed as “bullshit” and “garbage” the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) argument that agents shot the 37-year-old woman in self-defense during a protest against increasing immigration raids in Minnesota.
He also criticized the ICE operations in the city, saying, “They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said, calling on the federal agents to leave the city.
“They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets and in this case quite literally killing people,” he added.
Minnesota Senator Tina Smith noted on social media, “A US citizen has apparently been shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis. I’m gathering information, but the situation on the ground is volatile. ICE should leave now for everyone’s safety. Please be safe Minneapolis.”
The incident occurred while ICE officers were conducting an operation in Minneapolis, Minnesota’s largest city, where DHS reported the cumulative detention of more than 1,000 migrants, some from Ecuador, Mexico, and El Salvador, including over 150 on Monday, the largest immigration operation so far in 2026. EFE
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